ArcGIS Explorer Blog : ArcGIS Server

New Explorer Video Posted

ArcGIS-Explorer-Team — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 01:21:00 GMT

An Overview of ArcGIS Explorer video has been posted on the ESRI Web site. The video captures a demonstration presented at the ESRI Business Partner Conference earlier this year. The demonstration shows adding various Web services, local content, and KML to Explorer, and also shows using notes and various tasks, including custom geoprocessing tasks published via ArcGIS Server.

Explorer at Where 2.0

ArcGIS-Explorer-Team — Tue, 13 May 2008 19:45:00 GMT

Earlier this morning here at Where 2.0 in San Francisco, John Hanke, Director of Google Earth and Maps, and Jack Dangermond, ESRI President, partnered in a presentation which showcased some of the capabilities of ArcGIS Server 9.3. ArcGIS Server was used to publish KML that was viewed in Google Earth. The KML showed the result of a fire model with predicted burn times from the current fire perimeter (red line at right).

While ArcGIS Explorer is tightly coupled with ArcGIS Server, and has been designed specifically to leverage ArcGIS Server capabilities, ESRI's open architecture also provides support for Google Earth, Google Maps, Virtual Earth, and other custom viewers.

In the ESRI booth at the Where 2.0 conference we're using the same KML and ArcGIS Server-based maps in Explorer. Here we've taken things a little further with the use of the topo map service available from the Explorer Resource Center and the swipe tool. We used the swipe behavior option to swipe just the selected layer. You can set this option by choosing Tools > Options, and then clicking Layer Appearance.

Here's what the single layer swipe looks like:

Taking a Look at Earthquakes (in many different ways)

ArcGIS-Explorer-Team — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:27:00 GMT

This morning a 5.2 quake hit Illinois, shaking a large part of the Midwest, with many aftershocks following the main temblor. The quake was believed by USGS scientists to have involved the Wabash fault, an extension of the New Madrid fault. That fault generated the 1812 New Madrid quake, one of the largest ever recorded in the US.

So this morning we took at look at things using Explorer, first connecting to an ArcIMS service found on the Geography Network. We connected to the Geography Network at www.geographynetwork.com and added the ESRI_Quake_Rec service to Explorer. That service is updated every 15 minutes by ESRI and the USGS.

We also added the USGS topo service (physical features layer) from the Explorer Resource Center (Contents > Layers) and here's how things looked.

Next we visited the USGS Hazards Program site, and downloaded the CSV file for magnitude 1+ earthquakes over the last 7 days. We used Explorer's import capabilities to create results from the lat/long coordinates to add them to our map. We chose the magnitude as the title, and date and time as the description. And below we've used the swipe tool on the topo layer to reveal the imagery underneath.

From the same site we also clicked to open the KML file.

Next, we imported the CSV file and created a file geodatabase. Why did we do that? You'll find out in a couple of paragraphs, but here's the local file geodatabase in Explorer. When we click on the earthquake location point, the attribute information for the quake is displayed.

Using the file geodatabase from above, we decided to be a little more creative. We buffered each point (to create polygons at each quake location for better visualization) then symbolized and extruded each of those polygons based on the earthquake magnitude using ArcGlobe. To make things more visually dramatic, we added a multiplier to the magnitude just to extrude the features further. We saved the ArcGlobe .3DD file, and published it via one of our ArcGIS Servers.

Here's the area around southern California, and you can clearly see that during the past week this region has been seismically active too.

Finally, we tapped into the USGS "Shakemap" GeoRSS feed for a real time feed of live earthquake information.

Now we'll have to be honest and let you know we're cheating a bit with this one, but only just a little bit. The above screenshot showing a GeoRSS connection was created using today's daily build of Explorer hot off the development machines.

For everyone else, you won't be able to connect to a GeoRSS feed using the currently released Explorer 450, but you'll be able to do everything else we've shown here. GeoRSS support is just one of the many new features we'll be releasing with Explorer 480.

Explorer at the PUG

ArcGIS-Explorer-Team — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 21:30:00 GMT

Earlier this week we posted on the Explorer presentation during the plenary at the Federal User Conference.

Here's an overview of the Explorer presentation during the plenary at the Petroleum User Group meeting (PUG), held in Houston last week.

The first part of the presentation was similar to the FedUC demonstration, showing how the default ArcGIS Online maps and a wide variety of other content services, including ArcIMS, ArcGIS Server map and globe services, and WMS services, could easily be accessed and integrated into a common map.

For the next section, Alaska was used as the study area to showcase the ability to add a variety of local data. Shown below are:

a raster (BSQ image) downloaded from the EROS site
a file geodatabase of the ANWR and Area 1002 boundaries
a shapefile with airport locations
a KML file showing soil chemistry downloaded from the USGS Minerals Resource site

Next, Area 1002 was visited, showcasing some of the new symbols available in Explorer (the camera symbols in this case). These notes were linked to popups showing Quicktime panoramas taken by USGS field crews.

The next section highlighted Explorer's capabilities for integrating a wide variety of non-map content based on location. In this case some of the wildcat wells studied by the USGS were shown, with each popup linking to a wide variety of online information published for each well. For example, links could be followed to view the photos of core samples taken at varying depths in each well, and other information such as depths to stratigraphic horizons, gamma ray data, and drilling and geologic reports.

Finally, the demonstration moved to the Gulf of Mexico where several custom tasks were used. Shown below are the fields in play in the Gulf region (the colored splotches indicate varying degrees of oil and natural gas yields) and the outlines of the oil leases in the Gulf (from a geodatabase obtained from the Minerals Management Service).

Leases were selected belonging to a particular oil company (the orange highlighted fields), and all adjacent leases expiring within 90 days were found (the red highlighted fields). This was accomplished using a geoprocessing task authored using ArcGIS Desktop, and published as a task for Explorer via ArcGIS Server.

The expiring leases were then sent to another custom task (by right clicking the result and using Send To) which generated a report for the selected leases, summarizing ownership, the terms of the lease, area, and other information.

Explorer at the FedUC

ArcGIS-Explorer-Team — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:25:00 GMT

Last week marked ESRI's Federal User Conference in Washington, D.C. During the plenary on Tuesday a variety of ESRI software and applications were showcased, including ArcGIS Explorer. We've had a few requests to recap what was shown in a little more detail, so here's the overview of the ArcGIS Explorer plenary presentation.

First, the new Resource Center (introduced with Explorer 440) was highlighted by adding one of the newly published results - State Capitals - and showing the popup links to the USGS Science In Your Backyard Web site for each result. From there the Physical Features layer was added to the map, with a demonstration of the swipe and transparency tools. Shown below is the swipe tool being used with the seamless USGS topographic map layer that is included in the service.

The next part of the presentation showcased Explorer's ability to connect to and integrate a wide variety of different content services, each published through different servers at locations throughout the US. The layers included:

several ArcGIS Online layers
an ArcIMS service from the ESRI Geography Network
a WMS services found via the FGDC clearinghouse
an ArcGIS Server map service (population growth by county)
a dynamic weather map service that updates every 15 minutes. The weather data is collected in an enterprise geodatabase (ArcSDE) via a connection to a Meterologix weather service, and published as an ArcGIS Server map service. The Explorer layer properties were set to update every 15 minutes to match the updates on the server.
an ArcGIS Server globe service (hurricane tracks)

Added to the map was a stamp of "confidential." This was done using the new Display Overlay property added to Explorer 440. Go to File, then Map Properties, and look for the Display Overlay property. The overlay can be placed at a variety of different locations, and is a great way to include your company logo with your map.

Next, Explorer's ability to add a variety of local data sources was highlighted. Shown in the map below are a raster file (the historical map), a file geodatabase (Oregon county polygons), a shapefile (airport locations), and a KMZ file from the NRCS Web site (Snotel precipitation and snow levels). Also shown is the KML/Z popup window.

The airport symbol is part of Explorer's new billboarded point symbol set. These are optimized for performance, so even though there are many 10s of thousands of airports worldwide (see below) the navigation speed is not impacted significantly.

The city of Portland was visited next, with a 3D cityscape of the downtown area. The buildings were authored using ArcGlobe, extruding building footprints based on attributes containing elevation. Also shown are tax lots (an ArcGIS Server map service) and a link to a YouTube video showing a walking tour through Portland.

Several tasks were demonstrated, including a few of the default tasks (powered by ArcGIS Online) and a Weather Finder task downloaded from the Explorer Resource Center. Finally, a custom service area analysis task was used to determine drive time service areas, shown below as a red polygon. The geoprocessing task was authored using ArcGIS Desktop, and published via ArcGIS Server.

ArcGIS Explorer = Many Kinds of Layers

ArcGIS-Explorer-Team — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 04:29:00 GMT

One of Explorer's distinguishing features is its ability to connect directly to a wide variety of Web service-based content and a wide variety of local data, both vector and raster, and integrate and manipulate them all in a single map. It's truly in a league of its own in this regard. Shown below is Explorer with:

2 ArcGIS Online layers
1 WMS layer
1 ArcIMS layer
2 2D ArcGIS Server layers (1 of them dynamically updated every 10 minutes)
1 3D ArcGIS Server layer
1 KML (from the USGS site)
1 KMZ (from the NOAA site)
1 Shapefile
1 Result (a collection of points imported from GPS coordinates in a textfile)
1 BSQ raster image (from the EROS Data Center)

And we could add even more.

Several of the layers have been made partially transparent so they can be overlayed, and several have scale dependencies. The underlying data sources for the Web-based content include everything from enterprise ArcSDE geodatabases, file and workgroup geodatabases, and local sources that include shapefiles, rasters, and points added from textfiles containing GPS coordinates.

Using Dynamic Content

ArcGIS-Explorer-Team — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:22:00 GMT

ArcGIS Explorer 440 includes enhancements which make it easier to use and manage dynamic layer content from services that are continually being updated, like weather or active fire perimeters.

When you connect to one of these services you have full control over the refresh interval, and with Explorer 440 the cache for dynamic layers is automatically refreshed on open, so you'll always have the latest information. This now applies to all content sources, including both 2D and 3D services published via ArcGIS Server, 2D services published via ArcIMS, or local vector and raster data.

In this example we're going to use a weather service provided by Meteorlogix, one of ESRI's business partners. The Meteorlogix weather information service that ESRI taps into provides updated information every 15 minutes, and the data is being manipulated and stored in an Oracle-based enterprise geodatabase. As part of the geodatabase input process the data is generalized somewhat (for performance) and cell-based information is aggregated into polygons. As the data is refreshed in the geodatabase it is also being date-stamped, so that historical weather trends can be analyzed using ArcGIS Desktop's Tracking Analyst.

In ArcGIS Explorer we're interested in adding this service as a dynamic layer which refreshes automatically. To do this, we connect to the service in Explorer by choosing File, then Open, and selecting Server as the content type we wish to open.

Below we've clicked ArcGIS Server from the Create New Connection choices along the top, and have provided the necessary connection information to connect to the ESRI internal server that is publishing the weather (sorry, we don't yet publish weather as a publicly accessible service).

Now that we've established a connection to the server, we can scroll down and see the list of published services that are available. Below we've chosen to connect to the Meteorlogix weather service that we described above.

Now that we've chosen the weather service, we're guided by a wizard to specify certain parameters. Note that there is a user option to remember what we've specified the next time around.

First we're asked to specify the raster cell size, for which we accept the default chosen by Explorer. Next we're asked to choose from among the sublayers published in this service. And now to the important part - we're asked to specify the disk caching options. Since the weather data is updated on the server every 15 minutes, we'll choose the option for "Don't create a cache for the layer on disk." This also enables the choice for refreshing cache based on a time interval, and we'll specify 15 minutes as the refresh rate.

Using these settings Explorer will communicate with the server and refresh cache for this layer every 15 minutes. If the map is saved, when opened again it will automatically refresh the layer, then refresh at the specified 15 minute interval, ensuring that what you see is up to date.

You can experiment with this yourself using any service or local data source. For a detailed discussion on cache and various cache management options, refer to the Cache management in ArcGIS Explorer Help topic.

Authoring and Publishing Your Own 3D Buildings for Explorer

ArcGIS-Explorer-Team — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 19:16:00 GMT

We've recently had a couple of questions regarding how to author and publish your own 3D buildings that you can use in Explorer. It's simple to do -- author your map using ArcGIS Desktop, publish/serve it using ArcGIS Server, and then connect to the service to begin using it in Explorer. Here's how it's done:

Step 1: Author your map

Since what we want to author is a 3D service, we'll choose ArcGlobe as our authoring environment. ArcGlobe is part of the ArcGIS Desktop 3D Analyst product. Here we've started ArcGlobe, and have added our shapefile of building footprints, which in this case covers downtown Boston. We've zoomed in to those buildings, and removed the Continents and World Image layers (which are part of the ArcGlobe startup data) since we won't need them.

Next, we'll change how the buildings are symbolized. One of the buildings layer attributes is elevation. A handy technique to come up with some interesting visualization effects is to shade the buildings using the elevation attribute and using graduated colors. You can experiment with various color ramps and schemes. The more subtle light-to-dark single color ramps are perhaps more realistic, but here we've chosen a wilder color scheme for added drama.

Since we want to publish a 3D service, next we'll click the Globe Extrusion tab in the layer properties and extrude the buildings, using the elevation field again as the extrusion values.

We're now finished authoring, and will save our map which we have called "Boston Downtown.3dd."

Step 2: Publish your map

The next step will be to publish our newly authored map using ArcGIS Server. Your exact procedure for doing this may differ (due to firewall configurations or whether you have to work with other departments - like your IT group - to publish something) but in the simplest case you're literally just a mouse click away from publishing a 3D service.

Here we've started ArcCatalog directly from ArcGlobe, and navigated to our previously saved ArcGlobe map (Boston Downtown.3dd). To publish this map we simply right-click it and chose Publish to ArcGIS Server.

A wizard will allow you to specify the server, the name of the service, and it's folder. Here's we've just accepted our defaults. After this step, click Next to review your results, and we're finished.

Step 3: Connect

We've now completed both the authoring and publishing, all we need to do now is connect to the server and add the service to our Explorer map. Here we've started Explorer, and zoomed in to the Boston area using the Place Finder task. Next we choose Open, then Servers, and enter the URL to connect to the server that is now publishing our new Boston Downtown 3D buildings.

And here's how things look in ArcGIS Explorer.

We've taken the simplest path to authoring and publishing a service, but as you can see it's easy to do and took less than 10 minutes. You may want to refine your map service by adding scale dependencies or other layers during the authoring process, or by generating Server cache at specific scales. Refer to the ArcGIS Server documentation for more information on these topics.